Fujian - Day 2 in Xiamen

 

Date: 3 April 2010

Venue: Xiamen, Fujian, China

 

We left Yong Ding early in the morning.  We took the morning bus to Nanjing (南靖) then changed another bus to Xiamen.  It didn’t take all that long, may be 2 or 3 hours the whole journey.  Very cheap :)

 

After settling down in the hotel, we wandered around the neighbour which was actually the Buxing Jie, we ate so many snacks and really enjoyed ourselves.  My first impression of Xiamen: it was very nice and clean, quite like Guangzhou actually, so many people and many of them are very modern looking - ‘modern’ probably isn’t the word, but well, I surely saw some quite fashionable young people.  It was all very delightful.

 

Unlike in Hong Kong, taxies are very cheap in mainland China - we took a taxi and headed straight to the Nanputuo Temple.

After we paid a very small admission fee (RMB3), we went in the famous temple.  To our delight, we followed a Hong Kong tour which was (I believe) organized by some Hong Kong secondary school.  The tour guide told us everything we needed to know, but some students eyed at us, haha, when I asked the guide a question regarding the history of Buddha - I simply couldn’t help it, you should know how curious I am about things and how I always ask questions!

It was more like a big park than a temple.  Inside was packed with tourists who spoke Mandarin.  In the end we found out the reason why there were so many of them - it was the birthday of Guanyin (our Goddess of Mercy).  She protects me whenever I go, you see!

This was what I learned during our quick stay:

 

Come what may… is the best translation in my opinion.

 

We took a stroll to the famous Xiamen Daxue (university), it was only 5 minutes away.  Didn’t go in though - the stalls on the streets caught all our attention.  Cheap goods!  Cheap magazines and shoes!  At least that was what I bought: a pair of shoes and a travel magazine.  It was all very nice, we were very cheerful.  That was when we decided to spend money on some good food.  The taxi driver took us to a dapaidong (大排檔), we had some really good (and cheap of course) seafood and drank beers!  We talked about Xinjiang people and their weird traditions and laughed our hearts out!  A waiter asked if we were overseas Chinese, haha, I said we just came back from Indonesia :p

 

A foot massage was the best after-meal activity! HAHAHA!  It was so so so cheap in China!  I love it!  The sifu for Yan loved her too much that he kept massaging her feet with his best of skills, Yan screamed silently in her heart and was cursing/killing him in her head!  Haha, poor Yan!  Everyone seemed to be interested in us Cantonese.

 

We went back to the hotel very contented though we were already very tired.  Yan and I spent so much time in a bookstore - haha, how extraordinary, our hotel was inside of a bookstore, can you believe it?!!  I bought a very nice bag with a Germany map on it and called it a day.

 

In retrospect, I think there are so much to see in Xiamen, it was huge, new and somewhat exciting.  May be I was in a really good mood then.  It’s worth going second time.  I will be back!

April is a busy month

 

April has been very busy, for me at least.  Many things going on and things to do, many new ideas, many friends to meet and… many work to do.

 

On the first day of April, I went to Shenzhen right after work for the train to Yong Ding which was a small county in Fujian, China.  What is it famous for?  Tulou, the earthen buildings.  Kimmy and Molly joined Yan and me to the Fujian trip, rather unexpectedly.

 

Date: 2 April 2010 - Day 1

Venue: Yong Ding, Fujian, China

 

After 8 hours on the night train, we arrived at Yong Ding at 5 a.m. in the morning on 2 April - with way too many other HK tourists.  Everyone was going on a trip during Easter holiday!

 

I had already booked a (tulou) hotel in advance, the hotel manager sent a driver to pick us up from the train station.  In the one hour drive, we couldn’t help but dozing off.  Poor driver, life mustn’t be easy for him.

The room was very clean and simple, with 4 beds inside, a TV and a table, 4 pairs of slippers.  There were 2 toilets on each floor - clean.  The water wasn’t warm enough, but we were staying in a few-hundred-year-old tulou!  We really couldn’t complain so much!

 

It was cloudy at first, then rained.  The manager helped us get some tickets for the tulou clusters.  Molly was the know-it-all, she haggled all for us: the price for the tickets and the prices for our breakfast, lunch and dinner.  It really is easy when you travel with the locals (or someone who knows the way), it saves you a lot of trouble.  Thanks especially to Molly :D

We had a very Hakka breakfast prepared by the quiet hostess, and drank numerous cups of good tea steeped by the good nice manager, Molly left with the manager negotiating our route to see tulou clusters while the rest of us went to explore our ancient hotel.  Traditional would be the word I use to describe the building.  Oh the air was really fresh!

When we arrived the Tianluokeng Tulou cluster, there were already too many tour groups and with the heavy fog!  Our driver was a local who knew his way around, very good guanxi he had with the tulou clusters gate keepers, so we wasted no time in walking and waiting (of course in order to have good guanxi with him, I bribed him with some candies and snacks).

Finally I’ve got my shot and well… got a even better shot with 2 MK mui! Haha!  OK, I was being mean.  There were too many Hongkies!

 

At the beginning, tulou was actually very interesting but after a few, you realised you were looking at the same thing over and over again, with the same stalls and people who were sad one way or anther.  I suppose tulou has grown too popular and the residents have seen too many tourists and become so commercial themselves.

 

 

There are delighting things like the newly born dogs and the hardworking craftsmen.  You don’t see many young people (except kids) in all those old buildings, they all gone to work in the cities, I mean, I can understand that of course… when you are young, you find so many flaws in your city, you don’t like it, you leave.

 

The air was cool and fresh after the rain, even the green looked greener.  I was taking a small break waiting for Molly to leave.  I was, literately, bored.

 

Left the “Four dishes with a soup”, we went to another tulou, which was my favourite actually.  Very spacey and nice, with a kitchen in the middle of the building :)

The firecrackers startled me.  In Hongkong it’s no longer allowed.  Kids rushed to pick up the unburned ones and were smiling like flowers. 

I found it very strange when we were walking upstairs in all those tulou - it stank!  There were so many buckets full of urine on the corridors, must be really convenient!

We went to see so many tulous and they didn’t excite me anymore.  It was more interesting to take funny silly pictures, talking about whatever that came to mind and joking around with my friends.  One day spent in Yong Ding was good enough, 2 days would be too much!

Interesting how they have different cultures on marriage and such.

 

Another cluster, in the end, we didn’t even bother going in anymore.  Walking in the rain in this weather was killing us.

Hu Jintao took a picture at the same spot where someone took the same picture for us.  He kept saying "beautiful shot” after each picture.  So when I got my camera back and I was like “WHAT?! BEAUTIFUL SHOTS?!” haha, well, let’s just say everyone has different tastes :p

 

By the end of the day, the hostess took us out to show us the night view of the town.  It was amazing!

Our hotel at night :D

The too touristic Yong Ding at night!

 

It was actually very nice to have the car stand-by when we were sight visiting all those old yet still standing tulous, as there are way too many of them.  If the weather was nice, I am sure I would have enjoyed everything twice as much.  It is also very important when it comes to choosing your travel companions!  Molly and Kimmy were both very easy-going and nice, I was glad to have travelled with them :)

Anyway, this was our first day in beautiful serene Yong Ding.